Turkey Creek tries hard-sell approach with homeowners

By Anthony ClarkBusiness editor

Thursday

Dec 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM

A struggling golf course is taking the hard-sell approach to boost membership among residents in the surrounding community.

ALACHUA - A struggling golf course is taking the hard-sell approach to boost membership among residents in the surrounding community.The Turkey Creek Golf and Country Club is giving homeowners of the Turkey Creek community until today to join the club or forever forfeit the right for current or future owners of their property to join.With that ultimatum, issued by letter and e-mail two months ago, the club is taking a bet that homeowners will invest in the club now to keep up property values that would suffer if the golf course closed or if future buyers of their property were shut out of the club.It is a tactic that has saved other golf clubs at a time when hundreds of clubs a year are closing.General Manager Walter Smith said he got the idea a couple years ago from his counterpart at The Country Club of Orange Park."It has been very successful. We're having record profits," said Charles Raulerson, who did not provide further details about his efforts in Orange Park.Of 1,200 homes in Turkey Creek, fewer than 150 - or about 12 percent - have club memberships, while the national average in golf communities is about 25 percent, Smith said.Including memberships from those outside the community, the club has 235 to 240 golf members and another 40 to 50 members who use the pool, tennis and fitness facilities.More members would allow the club to improve facilities, and provide new services and activities, Smith said in the letter.Smith said they are allowing financial or medical hardship exemptions, and residents can designate their memberships to people who live outside the community.

By Monday, only about 25 new members joined as a result of the policy.Smith is concerned with the deadline closing fast that many people did not get the message after talking to dozens of people who said they never got the letter.He suspects that many ignored what may have appeared to be junk mail."I don't know what we're going to do if in mid-January we get dozens of phone calls and requests," he said.Among those who did get the message, the reaction has been mixed.Jane Hendricks, an attorney whose property abuts the golf course, joined earlier this month as an associate member as a result of the policy.Residents should support their quality of life, she said.She also found through an Internet search that other Florida golf communities with mandatory memberships cost thousands of dollars a year.Turkey Creek golf memberships start at $115 a month for an individual.Associate memberships are $35 a month, plus a required $15 in food and drink at the club restaurant.

"We're getting off pretty easy here," she said.But Hendricks has issues with the mandatory policy."The other side feels I'm being extorted," she said. "My neighbors are pretty upset about it. I think the golf course is alienating people with this approach."Randy McCracken has been a member since 1993 and said before hitting the links Tuesday that he and other members he has talked to support the policy."If we don't, we have a very realistic chance of losing our golf course," he said. "The value of our homes would drop extremely low."Turkey Creek is the only local golf course with such a policy.Meadowbrook Golf Club memberships are up, said General Manager Ron Bumgarner. The club has been getting fewer resident members and more from around the community, he said."It's still not enough," he said. "We need more money. It's tough."The location in northwest Gainesville helps draw members who can't afford some of the other clubs, he said.Turkey Creek, on the other hand, is in the southern city limits of Alachua and north of Gainesville off U.S. 441.

Haile Plantation Golf and Country Club is "doing very well," partly from an emphasis on family and youth programs, said membership director Debbie Sorgi. The club had 20 to 40 new members in the last couple months, she said, including some coming all the way from Turkey Creek."We're encouraging people to come over and join, but would hate to make people feel like they had to," she said. "If they're writing a check they're resenting, that can lead to a lot of ill will."Gainesville Country Club is a private club, but does not require residents to join, said General Manager Tommy Lyman."I find it hard to believe that in the future if a buyer purchases a home that did not adhere to this mandate they would in fact deny the new owner the right to join the club, especially if membership capacity remains less than full," Lyman said.But Smith said the policy only works if you stick to it.Hendricks said one problem is that golfers tell her it is cheaper to walk in off the street to play a round than to pay for a membership."Personally I think this golf course is poorly managed," she said, adding that the facilities are badly in need of refurbishing.But McCracken said the owners are doing a tremendous job for the number of members and the difficulty of running a golf business."That's the key right there. They need support in order to keep it up and keep it nice," he said.

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